Music

There’s no ignoring Ben Taylor’s musical lineage: With James Taylor as dad and Carly Simon as mom, Ben’s prowess in songwriting and performance is proving itself to be as impressive as his parents’. Yet his unique style is less hippie and more hip-hop. Ben’s set to open up for mom…

If there’s one thing the self-satisfied, liberal, tofu-munching, cappuccino-sipping, in-vitro-fertilization-using coastal elite hate, it’s FOX News. The Rupert Murdoch-owned channel even has the audacity to declare itself “fair and balanced,” which is approximately as accurate, liberals would argue, as Paul Wall calling himself African-American. Which brings us to the coastal…

Fiyawater Covert Propaganda (self-released) www.myspace.com/fiyawater Hailing from the culturally diverse hub of South Miami-Dade’s Perrine (P-rrine!) comes the hip-hop duo Fiyawater, comprising rhymers Ne’Pom and Spit, with production work by Investigative Reports. Here you have 14 tracks serious on the minimalism flanked by a throwaway intro and outro. The stripped-down…

Blue-eyed soul singer Jamie Lidell’s Jim ranks as one of the most unabashedly retro albums ever made — an inspired throwback/tribute to late-Sixties and early-Seventies R&B. Much of the time, Lidell’s smooth, suave voice recalls Stevie Wonder circa “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” and pre-What’s Going On Marvin Gaye. Propelled by handclaps…

Once his shit’s all the way together, Joel Zimmerman is going to explode. He seemingly can do no wrong — even his joke-band collaboration with Steve Duda, BSOD, illuminates a rare, untamed, scary talent. The pair’s half-ass, just-for-yuks foray into electro-house yielded some great songs that are all the rage…

Duran Duran boasts a rare longevity in the world of pop music — 12 albums and some 30 years in the business. The group’s two distinguishing members, synth master Nick Rhodes and vocalist Simon Le Bon, still speak to each other. Fans have accustomed themselves to the periodic, reptilian sloughing…

Of all the many musical exports Brazil has unleashed upon the world, no single piano player has done more for popularizing that country’s music than Sergio Mendes. In the Sixties, with his group Brasil ’66, he helped bring bossa nova into nearly every American home. That disc scored a radio…

If the recent Smirnoff showcase in New York — in which Common, Q-Tip, and KRS-One disconcertingly sold their skills to the British-owned vodka company for some quick stacks — is any indication, the state of “conscious” rap is in serious flux right now. It seems to stand mostly for vague…

In 1997, when Portishead’s self-titled second album arrived, the group’s sound was routinely described as trip-hop. Eleven years later, that term is as dead as Fatty Arbuckle, but Portishead is alive again and more captivatingly obtuse than ever. “I never had the chance/To explain exactly what I meant,” lead singer…

As the side project of one-man band Leviathan, Lurker of Chalice exists as a place for odder sounds that his main gig’s black-metal specs permit. Wonderman Wrest, a.k.a Jeff Whitehead, released 777 copies of Lurker of Chalice in 2000 to immediate acclaim, prompting this reissue on respected L.A.-based sludge label…

Scrolling the Weezy files doesn’t always lead to stellar tracks. He’s got plenty of home runs, too many triples, a decent amount of doubles, and straight up strikes out that don’t even come close to a single on the windiest day. But check this track out between Kanye and Lil…

(photo by Martynka Wawrzyniak) The Virgins are the latest white-hot (in every respect, meow) NYC quartet you are going to really care about very, very soon, if you’re not clued in already. In this week’s issue of the Miami New Times, we tell you why in our music section’s Live…

In this week’s issue of the Miami New Times, we give you the rundown on Duran Duran’s latest album, The Red Carpet Massacre, and the group’s appearance next Monday at Mizner Park in Boca. Click here to read that story. But of course, there are plenty of outtakes left from…